The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union emerged and developed after World War II, although its origins date back in history to the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. The Cold War was an ideological, economic, political and military clash, but in reality it was never fought between these two nations on a battlefield. It was a war of tension and hostility in which belligerents faced each other across the globe but avoided direct conflict due to the dire consequences of such actions. As the Cold War progressed until the collapse of the Soviet Union, it had a significant impact on American society, economy, and politics. The Cold War instigated strong anti-communism in the United States. The hatred towards communism was so great that it eventually led to McCarthyism. During McCarthyism, Americans were obsessed with the process of identifying communists and removing those communists from American society. The strength of this obsession increased dramatically to the point that Americans began to forget the fact that the American Constitution guaranteed all Americans the freedom to believe whatever they wanted to believe. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayThe purpose of organizations such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the House Un-American Activity became the "removal of communists," and laws such as the Communist Control Act were passed to facilitate the process of identifying, capturing, and removing communists. The McCarran Act was also introduced, which forced all communist organizations to register with the U.S. government and banned communists from carrying U.S. passports and working in defense industries. Inevitably, many were interrogated without having done anything wrong, many lost their jobs, and some even lost their lives, like the Rosenbergs, accused of passing secret information about atomic bombs to the Soviet Union. This red alert continued to dominate American society until the late 1950s. It's no wonder the Cold War topic is still one of the best topics in history: it made many Americans live in fear of the danger of war. This fear of war was fomented by the arms race. One example is the Cuban Missile Crisis, which caused high tensions within the United States as missiles in Cuba could reach the United States at any time. Until U-2 planes found the missiles in Cuba, the fear was not significant because people knew that the missiles in the USSR could not cover such a long distance to reach the United States. However, the missiles in Cuba threatened the security of the United States to a significant extent, so much so that many Americans had to live in fear. Although the Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) posture existed, missiles so close alarmed many Americans at the time. Aside from the Cuban Missile Crisis, Americans lived in constant fear that the Cold War could turn into a hot war at any moment. This constant fear was shared by both nations, but the winner was the one who could outdo the other, and in this case, it was the United States. “The Cold War was fought as much in the imagination as on the battlefield” (The Thaw). Even though an attack was never launched, the imminent threat of all-out nuclear war was very real, yet neither side wanted to attack, knowing the mutual devastation it would cause. Instead of directly threatening the Soviet Union with an attack, the.